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I’m learning to knit socks

For Christmas I asked for balls of sock yarn, never mind the fact that I didn’t actually know how to knit socks. I had a book on the subject and figured that if I could teach myself to quilt on the Internet, then I probably could teach myself to knit socks with a book. Well […]

‘American Quilts’ a must see

I saw the “American Quilts: Selections from the Winterthur Collection,” currently on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum, over the weekend and the quilts were inspiring. There are more than 40 quilts in the exhibit and many were made by women in their early 20s as bridal quilts, which just goes to show you that […]

700 inches of binding

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the longarm lately. Thanks to my newfound flexibility in scheduling, I’ve been able to spend one day a week at Quilting By-You in Bettendorf, Iowa, renting time on a longarm to finally finish up some quilt tops. Two weeks ago I finished quilting one of my two […]

Quilting with the Donnas

I spent the weekend volunteering at the Fall Festival at Walnut Grove Pioneer Village. It was a cross roads settlement in Scott County, Iowa, in the 1860s and 18 period buildings have been preserved on the site so visitors can get an up close look at history. A couple of times each summer the Mississippi […]

Instagram, the great motivator

http://instagram.com/p/ax8csQv4S2/ I started using Instagram with some frequency about the same time I started my maple leaf log cabin quilt. I took a class from Marti Michell when she came to my guild, and used her log cabin construction technique to  combine two blocks I’ve been itching to make a quilt with for years. I […]

Finding time to quilt every day

It’s fall, and that means spending more time in a classroom than at my sewing machine. I teach journalism and advise the student newspaper at my alma mater. We’re not talking going back to school after a summer off. We’re talking about working eight or nine hours at my main job at an ad agency, […]

Dare to DIY: Homemade gifts

My friend Kim Woodward is hosting a Dare to DIY blog party over at NewlyWoodwards.com. This week the challenge is to make homemade gifts. Over the weekend I whipped up some Christmas stockings for my sister, brother-in-law and new nephew. When my sister asked for stockings I reminded her that I still haven’t made stockings […]

Quilt retreat!

As you read this I am happily sewing away at quilt retreat. The semi-annual get-a-way is hosted by my guild, the Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild and it gives me four days of (mostly) uninterrupted sewing and quilting. This is the first time I’m going for more than just the weekend in three years, so I’m […]